Minimally invasive surgery generally reduces patient trauma and speeds recovery time as opposed to more conventional surgical procedures in which a large portion of the patient's body is opened. Minimally invasive endoscopic surgery generally involves incising through body walls for examining, viewing, and/or operating on various bodily organs or structures, including the ovaries, uterus, gall bladder, bowels, kidneys, appendix, etc. In such endoscopic procedures, a trocar typically creates an incision and trocar tubes or cannula devices are extended into and left in place (in, for example, the abdominal wall) so that endoscopic surgical tools may be inserted into the patient's body. A camera or endoscope can be inserted to enable visual inspection and magnification of a cavity in the body of the patient. The surgeon then performs the desired procedure with the aid of specialized instrumentation designed to fit through additional openings which provide additional entries into the desired body cavity. Thus, instead of a rather large incision (typically 12 inches or larger) necessary to complete a more conventional fully invasive surgical procedure, minimally invasive endoscopic surgery results in one or several smaller incisions, usually between 5 and 15 millimeters in size. In most instances, recovery is quicker and less painful than conventional surgery. In addition, because the surgical field typically is greatly magnified, surgeons are often better able to dissect blood vessels and control blood loss. In addition, heat and water loss are often reduced as a result of the smaller incisions.
In some surgical procedures, it is necessary to remove tissue or diseased organs. This can be challenging during endoscopic surgery because the tissue or organ removal must be achieved through the small openings through which the procedure is performed. In these situations, it may be desirable to fragment, morcellate, or otherwise reduce body tissue into smaller pieces that can be readily removed through the small endoscopic openings.
Morcellation involves fragmenting and removing diseased tissue or organ parts from healthy tissue or organs. In endoscopic morcellation, the fragmented pieces are typically removed from the patient's body through a small incision or through a trocar cannula device which extends through the abdominal wall. When the tissue or organ part is diseased or infected, it is preferred that the excised portions thereof be isolated from contact with surrounding healthy tissue. Accordingly, it is often necessary to enclose the fragmented organ during removal, thus preventing contamination of healthy tissue and bodily organs. In some instances, the organ is fragmented in a bag by a surgical device known as a morcellator, until such a time as the entire specimen is small enough to be removed while in the bag from the abdominal cavity through one of the minimally invasive endoscopic openings.